English inventions and discoveries are objects, processes or techniques invented, innovated or discovered, partially or entirely, in England by a person from England (that is, someone born in England – including to non-English parents – or born abroad with at least one English parent and who had the majority of their education or career in England). Often, things discovered for the first time are also called inventions and in many cases, there is no clear line between the two.

The following is a list of inventions, innovations or discoveries known or generally recognised to be English.

1798: Smallpox vaccine, the first successful vaccine to be developed, invented by Edward Jenner (1749–1823); in so doing, Jenner is said to have "saved more lives [. . .] than were lost in all the wars of mankind since the beginning of recorded history."[81][82]

1993: Viagra (a.k.a. Sildenafil – compound UK-92,480) synthesised by a group of pharmaceutical chemists working at Pfizer's Sandwich, Kent research facility in England. The press identified Peter Dunn and Albert Wood as the inventors of the drug; only Andrew Bell, David Brown and Nicholas Terrett are listed on the original composition of matter patent.[98]

1600: Recognition that the earth was a giant magnet, by William Gilbert (1544–1603) in his six-book work De Magnete; De Magnete was known all over Europe, and was almost certainly an influence on Galileo.

1665: Correct theory of combustion first outlined in Micrographia by Robert Hooke (1635–1703); Hooke observed that something (known now as oxygen) is taken from the air and that in its absence combustion quickly ceases, however much heat is applied.

1766: Hydrogen discovered by Henry Cavendish (1731–1810); Cavendish described it as a colourless, odourless gas that burns and can form an explosive mixture with air.[124]

1901: Silicone discovered and named by Frederic Kipping (1863–1949); according to the nomenclature of modern chemistry, silicone is no longer the correct term, but it remains in common usage.

1913: Concept of atomic number introduced by Henry Moseley (1887–1915) in order to fix the inadequacies of Mendeleev's periodic table, which had been based on atomic weight.[139]Isaac Asimov wrote, "In view of what he [Moseley] might still have accomplished … his death might well have been the most costly single death of the War to mankind generally."[140]

1958: the first cloning of an animal, a frog using intact nuclei from the somatic cells of a Xenopus tadpole by Sir John Gurdon.

1950 onward: the pioneering of the use of Xenopus eggs to translate microinjected messenger RNA molecules by Sir John Gurdon and fellow researchers, a technique which has been widely used to identify the proteins encoded and to study their function.

1960 onwards: Pioneering observation-based research into the behaviour of chimpanzees (our closest relatives in the animal kingdom) conducted by Jane Goodall (born 1934).

2016: Scientists at the British bio-tech company Oxitec, in an attempt to stop the spread of dengue fever genetically engineer a 'sudden death' mosquito which after mating successfully with a wild female, any offspring produced will not survive to adulthood and the lethal gene is passed on from the female to any male they mate with and the cycle continues. 3,019,000 mosquitos were released on the Grand Cayman Islands and after three months 80% of the population of mosquitos in the target area had vanished.

c. 1805: First bench micrometer – the "Lord Chancellor", capable of measuring to one ten-thousandth of an inch – invented by Henry Maudslay (1771–1831), a founding father of machine tool technology.[179]

1820s: Ice hockey, a variant of field hockey, invented by British soldiers based in Canada. British soldiers and emigrants to Canada and the United States played their stick-and-ball games on the winter ice and snow; in 1825, John Franklin (1786–1847) wrote during one of his Arctic expeditions: "The game of hockey played on the ice was the morning sport" on Great Bear Lake.[189]

1896: The dartboard-layout used in the game and professional competitive sport of Darts was devised by Lancashire carpenter Brian Gamlin (c. 1852–1903); Gamlin died before he could patent his idea.[201]

1799: Concept of the modern aeroplane as a fixed-wing flying machine with separate systems for lift, propulsion, and control set forth by Sir George Cayley (1773–1857);[204][205] Cayley is one of the most important people in the history of Aeronautics and flight: he is sometimes called the "father of aviation".[206]

1804: First glider to carry a human being aloft designed by Sir George Cayley (1773–1857). Cayley discovered and identified the four aerodynamic forces of flight: weight, lift, drag, and thrust; Modern aeroplane design is based on those discoveries, along with cambered wings which Cayley also discovered.[206]

1837: Pioneering contribution to parachute design made by Robert Cocking (1776–1837); aged 61, Cocking was the first person to be killed in a parachuting accident.

1804: First full-scale railway steam locomotive built by Richard Trevithick (1771–1833).[214]. This built on the endeavours of two other Englishmen, engineer Thomas Savery (c.1650–1715) , son of Devon, and the first practical steam engine built in 1712 by Londoner Thomas Newcomen (c.1664–1729). James Watt did not invent the steam engine. Rather Watt, prompted by English backer and manufacturer Matthew Boulton, effected improvements sufficient to make the invention commercial viable.

1829: Stephenson's Rocket built by George Stephenson (1781–1848) and his son Robert Stephenson (1803–1859); the Rocket was not the first steam locomotive, but it was the first to bring together several innovations to produce the most advanced locomotive of its day.

1923: The Flying Scotsman built to a design by Sir Nigel Gresley (1876–1941);[215] the Flying Scotsman was in 1934 the first steam locomotive to be authenticated at reaching 100 miles per hour (160.9 km/h) in passenger service.[216]

1876: The legal collection of 70,000 thousands seeds from the rubber bearing tree hevea brasiliensis which led to the discovery of the perfect growing climate and locations for rubber trees by Sir Henry Alexander Wickham. Most commercial rubber plants are descended from the seeds he took to Kew Gardens

1926: First automated traffic lights in England deployed in Piccadilly Circus in 1926;[221] outside of London, Wolverhampton was in 1927 the first British town to introduce automated traffic lights.[222]

1578: The first submersible (a small, submarine-like vehicle) of whose construction there exists reliable information designed by Englishman William Bourne (c. 1535–1582) in his book Inventions or Devises; Dutchman Cornelius Drebbel put Bourne's concept into action in 1620.

1691: A diving bell capable of allowing its occupier to remain submerged for extended periods of time, and fitted with a window for the purpose of underwater exploration, designed by Edmund Halley (1656–1742),[224] best known for computing the orbit of Halley's Comet.

c. 1730: The octant invented by English mathematician John Hadley (1682–1744); American optician Thomas Godfrey developed the instrument independently at approximately the same time.

1743: The "Whirling Speculum", a device used to locate the horizon in foggy or misty conditions, invented by John Serson (died 1744); Serson's Speculum can be seen as a precursor to the gyroscope.

1785: The lifeboat invented and patented by Lionel Lukin (1742–1834); William Wouldhave (1751–1821) made a rival claim, but he did not succeed with the practical application of his invention until 1789.

1843: Launch of the SS Great Britain – the first steam-powered, screw propeller-driven passenger liner with an iron hull; designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806–1859), it was at the time the largest ship afloat.

Early 17th century: The closely cut "English" lawn created in the Jacobean epoch of gardening, as the garden and the lawn became places created first as walkways and social areas. The English lawn became a symbol of status of the aristocracy and gentry; it showed that the owner could afford to keep land that was not being used for a building or for food production.

c. 1770: The lorgnette (a pair of spectacles with a handle, used to hold them in place, rather than fitting over the ears or nose) invented by George Adams I (c. 1709–1773) and subsequently illustrated in his son George Adams II's An Essay on Vision, briefly explaining the fabric of the eye (1789).[233]

1846: The Christmas cracker invented by London confectioner Thomas J. Smith by wrapping a bon-bon in a twist of coloured paper, adding a love note, a paper hat and a banger mechanism. This new idea took of and the bon-bon was eventually replaced by a small toy or novelty.

1849: Bowler hat designed by London hat-makers Thomas and William Bowler.

1866: The introduction, planting, cultivation and manufacturing of Ceylon tea in the British Crown colony of Ceylon, now Sri Lanka. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle said of the planting efforts "the tea fields of Ceylon were as true a monument to courage as the lions of Waterloo" and called it "one of the greatest commercial victories which pluck and ingenuity ever won."[241]

1868: Erection of first mounted dinosaur skeleton, Hadrosaurus Foulkii and introduction of the universal standard for all future dinosaur displays by English artist Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins in concert with Dr Joseph Leidy and Edward Drinker Cope. Displayed at The Academy of Natural Sciences

1870s: One precursor (among others) of the modern gas mask constructed by physicist John Tyndall (1820–1893).

^Androutsos G (2006). "The outstanding British surgeon Percivall Pott (1714–1789) and the first description of an occupational cancer". Journal of the Balkan Union of Oncology. 11 (4): 533–9. PMID17309190.

^Dalton, J (1798). "Extraordinary facts relating to the vision of colours: with observations". Memoirs of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester. 5: 28–45.

^Saunders, Paul (1982). Edward Jenner, the Cheltenham years, 1795–1823. University Press of New England. ISBN978-0-87451-215-1.